Presenting: Fluffy Lumbers!

As you can probably tell from the last few podcasts, I've really been digging the recent wave of easy-going, summer-obsessed indie rock (Real Estate, Wavves, Ducktails, etc.). Seems like every week there's a dozen new 45s and LPs full of songs about the beach, and it'd all be kinda irritating if there wasn't so much quality stuff to be had. Well, hopefully with all this hype getting thrown around and getting all over everything, Fluffy Lumbers' time in the sun will come soon, because from what I saw last week at the John Rivers Communications Museum, they've definitely got the goods.

Fluffy Lumbers tread a lot of the same ground as their fellow New Jerseyites Real Estate, but with a bit less Grateful Dead and a lot more My Bloody Valentine; total shoegaze, but with a beat more suitable for head-banging than head-bobbing, and with all of this new sub-subgenre's inherent good vibes turned up into the red, blown out like it's blasting from a boombox that got too much sand in it.

Although I saw them as a band, the recorded version of Fluffy Lumbers is the solo project of 20-year-old Sam Franklin. Franklin is also one half of Frat Dad, who you might recognize from the recent (and awesome) Underwater Peoples comp.

FL's debut 7-inch, The Police Cruisers EP, isn't out yet (at least not officially), but I managed to snag the band's last test-pressing, and it's been holding its own against my recent DC purchases, although I must say it's a bit different sonically from the band's live assault, which is not to be missed. Given that, I thought it'd be best to share the track that bears the greatest shoegaze influence. I expect great things from these guys.

[mp3] Fluffy Lumbers - "American Visions"
(from The Police Cruisers EP, out soon on Weird Hug Records)

If you're in the NYC area, they're playing tomorrow night (June 27th) at Market Hotel with Ducktails, Julian Lynch and Night Time. I'd be there if I didn't live 10 hours away.